


Do Monsters Perceive the World Differently?

by ArgentDandelion



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Fantasy Biology, Gen, Nonfiction, Undertale Monster Physiology, Weird Biology, Xenobiology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-12 12:49:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19946440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentDandelion/pseuds/ArgentDandelion
Summary: Talks about how monsters' bodies, senses, culture, and magical composition may affect perception of the world.





	Do Monsters Perceive the World Differently?

As the above sign shows, Dogamy and Dogaressa are apparently red-green colorblind, like real dogs.

Monsters’ bodies and likely senses are much more variable than those of humans. Would this affect how they perceive the world?

# Sensory Basis

Canonically, monsters’ senses can differ from humans. As seen above, dog monsters (e.g., the Dogi) can have poor vision in doglike ways, but a good sense of smell. Some monsters seem to lack senses entirely: rock monsters and slime apparently lack eyes and are surely blind, and skeleton monsters (e.g., Papyrus), as they lack skin, are (allegedly) insensitive to cold.

Monsters’ sheer body diversity, as well as occasional resemblance to specific animals, could mean their sensory ranges and types are like the animal kingdom’s and therefore greater than that of humans. If true, two monsters can perceive their worlds and even individual objects in very different ways.

All these differences mean monsters’ sensory preferences, abilities and weaknesses may differ. They might prefer different colors in artwork depending on color vision, or like different sorts of foods depending on how their taste and smell capabilities are arranged (if they exist at all).

Thus, it’s surely more complicated to make uniformly pleasing environments for monsters than humans, and that’s not even considering monsters’ variation in shape and size.

# Cultural Basis

Monsters might perceive things differently from humans for another reason: culture. Monsters, despite incorporating some things from the Surface, still have a distinct culture. People of different cultures may perceive the world differently.  
[For example](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Ffuture%2Fstory%2F20170118-how-east-and-west-think-in-profoundly-different-ways&t=NjUwZDAyYTBiMjAzZjZkOTVhNTBiNDY3MWEwMjhhNjY0MWQzOTNlNyxlZEo4a1ZLSA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F183080537600%2Fdo-monsters-perceive-the-world-differently&m=1), people in East Asian cultures spend more time looking at an image’s background, working on its context, while people of the United States spend more time on the image’s main subject.

Language, too, can make it easier or harder to describe certain things and discriminate similar stimuli, such as colors and smells. As of the game’s time span, though, this is irrelevant: monsters apparently speak English (or Japanese in the Japanese version), and provably have only a few distinct words, terms, or word uses.

# Magic-Body Basis

Despite their sheer body diversity, as a whole monsters and humans seem rather psychologically similar.  
Yet, the two have one big difference that can easily affect their psychology: monster bodies are mostly made of magic. Because their bodies are made of magic, their bodies are “attuned” to their SOUls. Additionally, they readily, even [unconsciously](http://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/182042292213/do-monsters-have-instincts), create magical expressions of bullet patterns, and apparently enjoy such expression.

All these things might affect what they can perceive, and how. After all, many animals that can intentionally produce signals (noises, electric pulses) can also receive them (sense of hearing, detecting electricity), particularly when sophisticated in making these signals.  
Therefore, monsters likely have organs, structures, or brain/brain-equivalent regions for detecting magical phenomena.[1](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/183080537600/do-monsters-perceive-the-world-differently#fn:1) As their bodies are made of magic, they would surely need have some sort of magical sensor just to keep homeostasis or emit magical bullets. (After all, it’s hard to emit noise properly without being able to hear it)

Humans may be unable to detect magic phenomena the same way. After all, some animals communicate in sensory ranges or ways humans cannot naturally perceive. In some cases, animals communicate in ways humans can see or hear, but not easily understand, such as the songs of birds, tail-wagging of squirrels, or waggle-dance of bees.

* * *

  1. Coffeelemental’s _[The Anomaly](http://anomalouscomic.tumblr.com/post/173039444855/carhenge-is-real-because-of-course-it-is-just)_ , Wolven0one’s _[Long Road](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F6499498%2Fchapters%2F17229676&t=ZGExNGJhMTYyNDlkZDY1YTc1NjEyNGEyNzNmM2I4ZmY3ZWFkNjUwNCxlZEo4a1ZLSA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F183080537600%2Fdo-monsters-perceive-the-world-differently&m=1)_ , and BlackRazorBill’s _[Soul Dichromatism](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F6883084%2Fchapters%2F17855245&t=MjE1ODU4YzBhNDU1MTgyYjZmN2UxZGYyMThjMjE5MTQyZjYxY2EyZCxlZEo4a1ZLSA%3D%3D&b=t%3AHZZTbr56CX-Pu8cYzedJTw&p=https%3A%2F%2Fargentdandelion.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F183080537600%2Fdo-monsters-perceive-the-world-differently&m=1)_ all relate to this. In their works, magic is something monsters can detect outside human-typical senses, either as an ambient energy, emanations from other monsters, or both. [↩︎](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/183080537600/do-monsters-perceive-the-world-differently#fnref:1)





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